Teach Yourself: The Big Ideas in Science: A Complete Introduction

Editor/Author Evans, Jon
Publication Year: 2020
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Price: Core Collection Only
ISBN: 978-1-52-939795-6
Category: Science
Image Count: 16
Book Status: Available
Table of Contents

Covering everything from the Big Bang to global warming, The Big Ideas in Science is an accessible and easy-to-use introduction to the scientific world, what it has achieved over the past few hundred years and what it promises for the future.

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Table of Contents

    • Introduction to the second edition
    • Introducing Homo scientificus
    • Part One: How We Got Here
    • 1 Bang, we're off
    • Expanding and cooling
    • Quarks and leptons
    • The strong force
    • The electromagnetic force
    • The first atomic matter
    • The force of gravity
    • 2 We are all stardust
    • Cosmic rays
    • The formation of new elements
    • 3 Recipe for a solar system
    • Our solar system
    • The formation of the Earth
    • 4 Life begins
    • LUCA
    • A definition of life
    • How were amino acids joined together?
    • 5 Evolution and extinction
    • Beneficial mutations
    • The role of the environment
    • Sexual reproduction
    • The emergence of humans
    • Part Two: Way of All Flesh
    • 6 Life in sequence
    • The proteins that make up life
    • The DNA molecule
    • The Human Genome Project
    • Exons and introns
    • Switching genes on and off
    • 7 From the bottom up
    • The genome
    • How the cell functions
    • Different types of cells in the human body
    • 8 Getting it on
    • Cell reproduction and mitosis
    • Meiosis
    • Fertilization
    • Super-charging evolution
    • 9 Man the defences
    • The main invaders
    • Entry through the mouth or nose
    • The innate immune system
    • The adaptive immune system
    • 10 Attack of the nerves
    • The neuron
    • How vision works
    • Part Three: Earth, Wind and Fire
    • 11 The ground beneath our feet
    • The basic structure of the Earth
    • Plate tectonics
    • 12 Shake, rattle and roll
    • Earthquakes
    • Subduction
    • Volcanoes
    • 13 Earth rocks
    • Silicate groups
    • Variation within rocks
    • Basalt and granite
    • Metamorphic rocks
    • Sedimentary rocks
    • The rock cycle
    • 14 Wet and windy
    • Convection currents
    • Circulation cells
    • The direction of prevailing winds
    • Circular currents in the ocean
    • 15 Stormy weather
    • Clouds and weather
    • The production of rain
    • The formation of ice crystals
    • Thunder and lightning
    • Cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons
    • Part Four: We Have The Technology
    • 16 Full of energy
    • Potential energy and kinetic energy
    • Energy and forces
    • From energy to heat
    • Loss of energy
    • 17 Coming in waves
    • Wavelength, amplitude and frequency
    • Waves and energy
    • Electromagnetic radiation
    • 18 Information overload
    • Boole and logical reasoning
    • From decimals to binary
    • The microprocessor
    • 19 Material advance
    • Graphite and graphene
    • Two-dimensional materials
    • Advanced materials
    • Nanomaterials
    • 20 It's alive
    • The path to modern genetics
    • Cloning animals
    • Stem cells
    • Synthetic biology
    • The moral dilemma
    • Part Five: When Science Goes Bad
    • 21 Fraud, fakery and fantasy
    • More cases of scientific fraud
    • Data manipulation
    • The discovery of ‘cold fusion’
    • 22 Shocks and scares
    • System 1 and System 2
    • GM crops
    • The MMR scare
    • 23 Hot enough for you?
    • The principles of climate change
    • Controversy over rising air temperatures
    • The effect of water vapour
    • Solar radiation
    • Changes in the future
    • 24 Apocalypse now
    • Nuclear war
    • Nuclear threats
    • Chemical and biological attacks
    • Long-term damage to the Earth
    • 25 Know your limits
    • Setting restrictions on the universe
    • Beyond the scientific method
    • The use of computers in science
    • Quantum theory
    • Part Six: Science of The Future
    • 26 Back to the future
    • Incorrect predictions
    • Why do we have rockets?
    • Predictions in science fiction
    • 27 A.I.
    • Robots and intelligent machines
    • New types of computer chips
    • Computers that are able to learn
    • 28 Innerspace
    • Treating cancer with gold nanoparticles
    • Smart implants for other diseases
    • Stimulating tissue growth
    • Enhancing our bodies
    • 29 A space odyssey
    • Getting a rocket into space
    • Keeping a rocket travelling in space
    • Getting there faster
    • 30 Things to come
    • Colonizing space
    • Capturing more of the Sun's energy
    • The death of the Sun